Paul's 3rd Missionary Journey Series

November 11, 2023

Prologue

After spending some time in Antioch, Paul, once again had itchy feet. It was time to return to Galatia and Phrygia.

Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, who was originally from Alexandria Egypt, went to Ephesus. He had a thorough knowledge of scripture and he taught in the synagogue with great passion about Jesus – though he only knew how John had baptized. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they invited him home and gave him further instruction.

From Ephesus he travelled to Achaia and was a great help to the believers there. “He vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from scripture that Jesus was the Christ.” While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul arrived at Ephesus.

Ephesus

In Ephesus, Paul found the 12 men Apollos had baptized. He asked if they had received the Holy Spirit. They didn’t know what he was talking about. They told him they only knew of John’s baptism. “That was the baptism of repentance,” he told them, so they were all baptized again in the name of Jesus, then Paul placed his hands on them and the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in other languages.

As was his custom, Paul went to the local synagogue. He spent 3 months there, preaching boldly about Jesus.

As was their custom, some of the Jews in the congregation, took exception to Paul’s message and publicly criticized him, so, Paul left and took his disciples with him. For 2 years they met in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

God performed many miracles through Paul – giving evidence that what he was teaching was true.

The 7 sons of a Jewish chief priest, named Sceva, were attempting to take advantage of the people’s superstitions by driving out evil spirits. Impressed by Paul’s success, they began to claim that their power to drive out evil spirits also came from Jesus. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."

One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"

The man, whose evil spirit they were attempting to cast out, jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

When the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus heard the story, they were all seized with fear, and the name of Jesus was held in high honor. Many believers openly confessed their evil deeds. Those who had practiced sorcery publicly burned their scrolls. The value of the scrolls was over 136 YEARS worth of wages.

• Acts 19:20 - In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

Paul decided that it was time to go back to Jerusalem, but before he left, he got into a spot of trouble. In Ephesus there was a silversmith, named Demetrius. A large part of his income came from the making and selling of silver representations of the goddess Artemis (Greek)/Diana (Roman). Because of Paul, fewer people were buying his idols and he was losing money – as were all the other silversmiths in town. He called the members of local 666 together:

"Men,” he said. “You know we make good money in the idol business. You also know that this fellow Paul has led astray large numbers of people here and practically in all of Asia saying that man-made gods are not gods at all. There is a real danger that we’ll lose our reputation among the people, but worse than that, the temple of Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, will be robbed of her divine majesty."

When the men heard this, they were enraged and began shouting: "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Pretty soon the whole city was in an uproar. The mob dragged Gaius and Aristarchus (companions of Paul) into the local theatre. Paul wanted to go to their defense, but his disciples would not allow it.

There was a lot of confusion and most of the people didn’t know what was going on.

A Jew named Alexander was pushed to the front and tried to speak, but when the mob realized he was Jewish, they began to chant, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” They carried on like this for 2 hours.

Finally, the city clerk stepped in, "Men of Ephesus, all the world knows that we are the guardians of the great Artemis and her temple. These facts are undeniable, so be quiet and do not act in haste. You have dragged these men here, even though they have done nothing against our goddess. If Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance they can go through the proper channels and press charges. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because we have no evidence to back up our actions." (Acts 19:35-40) – with that, he dismissed the crowd.